RANUNCULUS. I6J 



and shade the frame with mats ; but it should be 

 closely shut up with the glasses at night, and when 

 the air is cold. After the plants are all up, and 



their two interior leaves appear, more air must be 

 given, and water supplied when the weather renders 

 it necessary ; but fine warm showers of rain are 

 always preferable when they happen in due time. 

 The plants require this regular attention until the 

 foliage is become perfectly dry and brown. The 

 roots are then to be taken up, and the safest way to 

 do it is to pare off the earth with a trowel to about 

 three inches deep, and put it into a sieve, as before 

 recommended. Those roots that have two or three 

 claws, will blow strong the following summer, if 

 planted as already advised. 



Neither the Persian nor the African Ranunculus 

 were known to the Romans in the time of Pliny, 

 who has described four kinds of these plants, with- 

 out noticing the beauty of the flower. The Latins 

 called these species of plants Ranunculus, from 

 Rana, a frog, because they were observed to grow 

 in places frequented by those animals. It was also 

 called Strumea by the Latin herbalists, because it 

 was used as a cure for a complaint similar to the 

 KingVevil, which they termed Struma*. 



From its caustic and burning qualities, the green 

 leaves were used to draw blisters, and take off 

 marks in the skin, as also for the leprosy. Pliny 



